. >> ambassador ginsberg, if we could look at the region broadly, a vexing question facing the united states right now is what's in the best interest of the u.s.? a sort of friendly cooperative dictator, though they may be brutally repressive to the people or a messy, uncertain democracy like in egypt and libya right now. >> the genie's out of the bottle in the middle east. the fact of the matter is every one of the countries going through a transition and it's going to take many acts to follow before we know what's going to happen, whether it's in egypt, syria, saudi arabia or iran. the problem is right now the united states standing in the region has deteriorated rapidly in the last couple of years under president obama. since his cairo speech. most unfortunate. i'm the last person to want to see that. i think the president had the best of intentions to try to rebuild ties with the muslim world but the high expectations of what to deliver versus the changes taking place have created a circumstance where there's great disappointment with the united states, whether it's by syrians or